写真提供： Benjamin Suter from Pexels
CHARACTER
ANGEL An angel who is dressed in a long, white gown
JEREMY A male sage character who is dressed in his pajamas
TIME AND PLACE
Present. Late at night. In Jeremy’s bedroom.
SCENE
Jeremy is in bed, sleeping. He is having a dream where an angel starts talking to him. Audience can see Angel but Jeremy can only hear her.
ANGEL
Jeremy, you’ve passed the test. Now you will be living in the astral plane.
JEREMY responds to ANGEL’s voice while in bed.
JEREMY
What? I have passed what?
ANGEL
The test. As you’ve passed the test, you will be living in the astral plane.
JEREMY gets up but still staying in bed.
JEREMY
I’ve passed the test… I’ll be living in… where?
ANGEL shows up but JEREMY can only hear her, not see her.
ANGEL
The astral plane. It is going to be like you are living in a state of euphoria while you are still here on earth.
JEREMY
Am I dead?
ANGEL
No. You are not dead. You’ll be free from suffering in your mind. You may experience some physical pain or challenges time to time but most of the time you will be embraced with happiness and fulfillment in your current body.
JEREMY
But why?
ANGEL
Because you’ve passed the test.
JEREMY
The test. Right. Was that a multiple-choice or written test? Or was it an interview? Well, that does not matter because I haven’t taken any type of test since the bar exam that I took ages ago. You must be talking to a wrong Jeremy. Are you sure it’s me who passed the test?
ANGEL
Jeremy, I’m talking to the right person. There wasn’t any particular form of test. It is your life, so-to-speak. How you’ve lived your life, how you’ve exhibited your love to others.
JEREMY
Oh, then are you God? My life here is over?
ANGEL
No, and no. I am just a messenger, and your life is not over.
JEREMY
Oh, good gracious. Great to hear that I’m still alive. So you are an Angel or some sort of a divine messenger?
ANGEL
Yes. We have been selecting people who exhibit enormous love to others so they can lead others. Others to the new world.
JEREMY
New world…?
ANGEL
You don’t have to worry about that for now, you will know sooner or later.
JEREMY
Okay, then I’m more curious about what part of my life was so highly recognized for me to be selected.
ANGEL
Well, let me put it this way; From where we live, we can see each of you on earth as a beam of light, like you see stars in the sky. Some are shinier than others. We started recognizing you since the incident… When you lost your family… your father, mother and your little brother in a car accident.
JEREMY
Oh… The accident…
ANGEL
For several years, we noticed your light being flickering, sometimes it became so frail and we thought we lost you.
JEREMY
It was like the end of the world… I was still a teenager, you know. It felt like I lost everything. And my grief was all my own.
ANGEL
We saw the loneliness and despair you went through. You had people around you who were supportive, but in your mind, you were all alone. Solitude was your friend at the bottom of your heart, for a long time.
JEREMY
Well, people only can understand what they’ve been through. They do their best on their own way. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the worst time of the year. People invited me over to their family gatherings so I wouldn’t feel left out but the truth is, I couldn’t help feeling more lonely when I saw them laughing and talking… I had to miss my own.
ANGEL
To distract the loneliness, you devoted yourself in working in school, harder than any other student, and started a successful career as a lawyer.
JEREMY
I guess you can say that. I just did what I needed to do.
ANGEL
Right, you did what you needed to. You met your wife, shared what was in your heart, and talked about having a big family… Her family welcomed you with open arms. They were kind, caring and understanding people and treated you like their own.
JEREMY
Yes, they were really good to me.
ANGEL
But then, you started having your own sons and daughters who share your blood. You were in their lives on the day they entered this world. They are so precious that you could pour your infinite love.
JEREMY
Yeah, they are like my heavenly flowers. Every one of them is different. I watered them every day, with all the love in me, thinking about how they were going to bloom in their own way.
ANGEL
You watered love every day… And you never forced them or influenced them to be the way you wanted them to be. You raised them in an egoless way. You know, for some parents, that is not so easy to do because they have their own invisible pressure or unspoken rules set by their family, community or the society itself that they think they have to follow.
JEREMY
Ha, like it or not, I did it my way, didn’t I? Not having my parents around when I was busy sending them to school, dropping off/picking up from sports, so I didn’t get any negative nor positive advice on the way I raise my kids. In my mind, they were more of an encouragement for me.
ANGEL
I’m sure they were. That’s why you helped the young homeless girl, didn’t you? The girl who was lost, didn’t know what to do with her situation.
JEREMY
Megan.
ANGEL
Yes, the girl who asked you for help.
JEREMY
Yeah, you can say she was a little overwhelmed and confused that morning when I met her. I was walking down a skyway and she opened a door for me so I slipped her some cash. When I was walking away, she called out, “Thank you, Sir, thank you. Wait, would you, would you be kind enough to help me?”
ANGEL
Jeremy, let me ask you something. You were not afraid when she asked you for help?
JEREMY
Afraid of what? Megan?
ANGEL
Yes.
JEREMY
Why would I? She was just a young, helpless girl. She didn’t know what to do. That morning, I saw her courage to do something to get out of the situation. I thought she deserved a hand.
ANGEL
Even after you learned about her situation?
JEREMY
She was getting into four-month pregnant, no father being around, addicted with drugs, didn’t have anyone to turn to, no money, no food, no home, nothing.
ANGEL
Well, we think you were brave and generous to face the issue and voluntarily get involved with a homeless, pregnant girl with a drug issue, someone who you had no idea where she was from. Most of the people would just walk away, act as if there’s no one standing there so they can stay out of trouble.
JEREMY
In that morning, when I talked to Megan, I saw something in her eyes… something familiar, something I’d seen before…
ANGEL
Now you know what that was?
JEREMY
I don’t know… I don’t know why but I felt like that was my mission to save her from the misery. It was almost like I had some kind of urge to save her to save myself.
ANGEL
Jeremy, you just did the right thing. On that day, what you saw in her eyes was you. The emotions that you were suffering when you lost your family… When you didn’t know what to do, when you were utterly lonely.
JEREMY
I saw myself in her eyes….?
ANGEL
You were so lonely, being alone after you suddenly lost your parents and brother in the accident. You wished you’d rather been dead along with them instead of being left alone.
JEREMY
You are an angel after all. Seems like you guys have some kind of a divine-telescope to see what’s going on in our minds. I was lonely for sure. I thought about going after them, honestly. Sometimes I just wanted to be vanished from where I was. Sometimes I was so bothered by people concerning about me without knowing what I was going through in my mind. Sometimes I wished everyone to be vanished. But deep inside, I knew getting away wasn’t right. Taking my own life was never right. So I just tried to fit in, tried to please people so they’d like me, they’d love me, and they wouldn’t kick me out…
ANGEL
Jeremy, you managed yourself very well. We know it was much more challenging than it sounds. You pulled yourself together, stayed positive to get over the indescribable sadness, loneliness and helplessness.
JEREMY is facing down, sobbing.
ANGEL
In Megan’s eyes, on that morning, you saw yourself in a misery, being sad, lonely and helpless. You could do nothing but offering a hand to her. Of course, because you were offering a hand to yourself, the boy who was all alone, insecure, and desperately lonely.
JEREMY
Dad, Mom, David, my whole family disappeared… altogether… at once… I did not think anyone could imagine how it’s like. I lost my home… place to go back, place where I belong to…
ANGEL
Well, Jeremy, look around yourself. Now you have many children who love you so dearly, including the girl you saved because of the love you showed, shared, nurtured, and exercised with them. Now they are in turn exercising their love with their kids and people around them because you showed a great example. You should be proud of yourself.
[Beat] Enjoy your new life. You deserve it.
ANGEL exits. JEREMY looks up.
JEREMY
[Beat] Where am I?
= End =
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